Packages for articles such as cans, bottles, and the like comprising a filled tray having a tubular film-like member around it which is heat shrunk to form a firm package are known. For example, Funkhouser U.S. Pat. No. 3,347,365, which issued on Oct. 17, 1967, discloses such a package and a method of making it which includes the steps of manually or automatically cutting a roll of transparent film-like sheet material into flat blanks, wrapping the blank around a filled tray to surround the filled tray with a transparent tubular or sleeve member having ends which overlap on the bottom of the tray, heat sealing the overlapping ends together whereby the sheet of film material is formed in a tubular form around the filled tray with the opposed ends of the tubular film-like material extending beyond the opposed ends of the articles in the tray, pre-shrinking the open ends of the tubular film-like member around the opposed ends of the articles in the tray, and then heat shrinking the film-like material to hold the articles to the tray and form a rigid package. Instead of wrapping the film-like material around the filled tray, the Funkhouser patent states that an alternative procedure would be to form the film in tubular form without having any longitudinal seams, and insert the filled tray into the seamless tubular sleeve.
Such packages have a number of advantages over the conventional rectangular corrugated paperboard case, including weight savings, lower cost, locking the cans or bottles to the tray so as to prevent relative movement or chime riding, transparency so that the labels on the articles can be seen, and easy removal by slitting the film sheets. Moreover, the heat-shrunk film sheet keeps the articles clean. However, such packages have a number of disadvantages such as the overlapped portion of the film sheet on the bottom of the tray which sometimes hinders the sliding movement of the tray in transporting it from one position to another.